1. Main points

Comparable figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) showed no statistically significant change compared with the previous year’s survey, with an estimated 6.1 million incidents of crime in the survey year ending December 2016.

Including experimental statistics on fraud and computer misuse offences, there were an estimated 11.5 million incidents of crime in the survey year ending December 2016. As questions on fraud and computer misuse were not in the previous year’s survey, it is only possible to make year-on-year comparisons from the CSEW by excluding such offences.

While it is too early to look at trends in fraud from the new CSEW Experimental Statistics, other data suggest it has risen over the last year. For example, fraud referred to the police showed an annual rise of 4% and industry data on financial fraud showed there were 1.8 million cases of frauds on UK-issued cards (an increase of 22% from the previous year).

Most main offence groups covered by the CSEW showed no statistically significant change compared with the previous year’s survey. Theft offences were the only exception and these fell by 10%.

The police recorded a total of 4.8 million offences in the year ending December 2016, an annual rise of 9%. However, the large volume increases driving this trend are thought to reflect changes in recording processes and practices rather than crime.

However, there appeared to be smaller but genuine increases in some of the lower volume but higher harm categories of police recorded violence, including homicide and knife crime. There were also small increases in some offences where recording practices are less likely to have been a driving factor. For example, it is likely that recent rises in burglary and robbery reflect some genuine increases in crime. However, these recent increases should be seen in the context of substantial falls in such crime over the longer-term.

2. What has changed within this publication?

Quarterly bulletins have adopted a new, shorter format since the year ending December 2015 release, with the aim of making the main messages more accessible. Despite cutting down the commentary in these bulletins, we have maintained the published level of detail in datasets and in order to ensure that none of the previously published information has been lost, all “former bulletin tables” continue to be published.

New questions on fraud and computer misuse were added to the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) in October 2015. These questions have now been included within the CSEW for over 12 months, with sufficient data having been gathered to form a new additional headline estimate of total CSEW crime. As these are newly developed elements of the survey, this estimate and others on fraud are produced as Experimental Statistics (Tables A1 to A3 and Table E1 to E2).

Experimental Statistics on fraud and cybercrime recorded by the police are also being published again alongside this bulletin, including:

Action Fraud data at police force area level, based on victim residency; these are presented in Table E3

police recorded crime data on offences that have been flagged as having an online element1; these are presented in Table E4

Notes for: What has changed within this publication?

An offence should be flagged where the reporting officer believes that on the balance of probability, the offence was committed, in full or in part, through a computer, computer network or other computer-enabled device.

The main focus of the commentary in our statistical bulletins has always been on numbers of crimes. In the future, alongside continued commentary on numbers, we intend to give greater prominence to crime rates compared with the current bulletin format to help put numbers in the context of the population. We are seeking advice from the National Statistician’s Crime Statistics Advisory Committee regarding the planned implementation of these presentational changes.

Following criticism of the methodology for handling high-frequency repeat victimisation in Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimates, particularly with regard to violent crime, we commissioned an independent review of the current and alternative methods for addressing repeat victimisation. This review was published on 6 July 2016 alongside a user consultation seeking feedback on the review’s recommendations. The consultation ran until 13 September 2016. In response our proposed way forward was published on 7 November 2016, along with a summary of the feedback received to the consultation, with plans to implement the new methodology and revise the back series by July 2018 at the latest. More information can be found in Section 2 of the User Guide to Crime Statistics.

We have recently published information regarding a new proposed crime measure called the Crime Severity Score (CSS). Based on police recorded crime, the CSS would be intended to supplement existing measures rather than replace them. It aims to take into account both the volume and the severity of offences, by weighting offences differently according to their severity. By “severity”, we are intending to reflect the relative harm of an offence to society and the likely demands on the police, given that the police resource requirements are likely to be greater for offences that are more serious. Details of the CSS are available in an article published in November 2016.

We intend to continue developing the structure of our quarterly statistical bulletins in future editions. In addition, as part of this ongoing review, we will be seeking views on whether there is a continuing need for all of the data we publish and whether there are new requirements for data we are not currently producing. We will also be looking at opportunities to exploit new data sources to meet your needs for more detailed information on the nature of crime.

4. Things you need to know about this release

A crime is an act harmful to an individual (or individuals), a community, society or the State and is punishable by law. Being an illicit activity, by its nature, it is impossible to measure in its entirety.

These Official Statistics draw on two main sources to measure crime levels and trends: the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and police recorded crime; neither of these sources can provide a complete picture and each have different strengths and limitations.

Crime Survey for England and Wales

The CSEW is a face-to-face victimisation survey in which people resident in households in England and Wales are asked about their experiences of a selected range of offences in the 12 months prior to the interview. For the population and offence types it covers, the CSEW generally provides the better measure of trends on a consistent basis over time, because it is unaffected by changes in levels of reporting to the police or police recording practices. The methodology employed in the main count of crime has remained comparable since the survey began in 1981. It was also confirmed in December 2016 that statistics produced from the CSEW retained their National Statistics status.

The CSEW is able to capture a broad range of victim-based crimes experienced by those interviewed, not just those that have been reported to, and recorded by, the police. However, there are some high harm but relatively lower-volume offences, such as homicide and sexual offences, which are not included in its main estimates. The survey also excludes crimes against commercial or public sector bodies or those living in communal establishments (such as care homes, student halls of residence and prisons).

The survey now includes fraud and computer misuse (further information is available in Section 5.4 of the User Guide to Crime Statistics for England and Wales). Until such data are available for two complete survey years, commentary on trends will be based on CSEW crime excluding fraud and computer misuse offences.

The CSEW allows for the estimation of a variety of different measures, including the number of incidents of crime and the number of victims. Using population estimates it is also possible to calculate the corresponding number of incidents per 1,000 population (the incident rate) and the number of victims per 100 population (the prevalence or victimisation rate). All four measures have been included within this release. For some crime types, the numbers of victims will be lower than the numbers of incidents, as some victims experience repeat victimisation. For household crimes such as burglary and criminal damage, the number of victims will be higher than the number of incidents, as each adult resident in the household is counted as a victim.

Police recorded crime

Police recorded crime figures are restricted to a subset of notifiable offences that have been reported to and recorded by the police. Therefore, while the police recorded crime series covers a wider population and a broader set of offences than the CSEW (for example, residents of institutions, tourists and crimes against commercial bodies), it does not include crimes that do not come to the attention of the police or are not recorded by them. Police recorded crime is the principal source of subnational crime statistics and for higher harm, but lower volume, crimes that are not well-measured by a sample survey, and as such it is an important source for analysing trends in well-reported crimes, such as homicide and vehicle theft.

Following an assessment of crime statistics by the UK Statistics Authority, published in January 2014, the statistics based on police recorded crime data were found not to meet the required standard for designation as National Statistics. Police recorded crime is not currently considered a reliable measure of trends in crime for most crime types, since it is prone to changes in recording practices and police activity as well as changing behaviour in public reporting of crime. As a result, trends will not always reflect changing levels of criminal activity. Apparent increases in police recorded crime seen over the last 2 years may reflect a number of factors, including tightening of recording practice, process improvements, increases in reporting by victims and also genuine increases in the levels of crime. It is often difficult to disentangle these different factors. Further information is available in the “quality and methodology” section of this release.

Time periods covered

The latest CSEW figures presented in this release are based on interviews conducted between January 2016 and December 2016, measuring peoples’ experiences of crime in the 12 months before the interview.

The latest recorded crime figures relate to crimes recorded by the police during the year ending December 2016 (between January 2016 and December 2016).

5. What is happening to trends in crime?

Crime Survey for England and Wales

Latest figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) show there were an estimated 6.1 million incidents of crime experienced by adults aged 16 and over based on interviews in the survey year ending December 2016. The apparent 5% decrease from 6.4 million incidents estimated in the previous year’s survey was not statistically significant. These estimates cover crimes against the person (for example, violence or theft from the person) and against households (for example, domestic burglary or criminal damage), but exclude fraud and computer misuse offences.

Data derived from the new fraud and computer misuse offence questions (which continue to be published as Experimental Statistics) show there were an additional estimated 5.4 million incidents of fraud and computer misuse offences in the latest year’s survey (3.5 million fraud and 1.9 million computer misuse offences).

Adding fraud and computer misuse offences to the existing CSEW series indicates an estimated 11.5 million incidents of crime covered by the CSEW in the survey year ending December 2016. It should be emphasised that this combined estimate is not comparable with headline estimates from earlier years. For year-on-year comparisons and analysis of long-term trends, it is necessary to exclude fraud and computer misuse offences, as data on these are only available for the last 15 months. It will not be until January 2018 that we will be able to release valid year-on-year comparisons of CSEW estimates including the new fraud and computer misuse figures based on 2 full years of data.

Crime covered by the CSEW (excluding fraud and computer misuse offences) increased steadily from 1981, before peaking in 1995. After peaking, the CSEW showed marked falls until the survey year ending March 2005. Since then, the underlying trend has continued downwards, but with some fluctuation from year to year, as shown in Figure 1.

Although fraud and computer misuse offences have substantially increased the estimated volume of crime covered by the survey, this new total is still 40% below the 1995 level (19 million offences). Thus, these estimates do not support the argument that the fall in crime charted by the survey simply reflects a switch to online crime.

CSEW estimates of crime relate to a broad range of victim-based crimes experienced by the adult resident household population. However, they exclude some high harm (but lower-volume) offences such as homicide and sexual offences, as well as crimes against children.

CSEW estimates of crimes experienced by children aged 10 to 15 (published in Appendix tables A9, A10, A11 and A12) are not directly comparable with the main survey of adults, so are not included in the headline total. In the latest survey year, the CSEW estimated that around 11 in 100 children aged 10 to 15 were victims of at least one crime. A total of 716,000 crimes1 were experienced by children aged 10 to 15; of this number, 52% were categorised as violent crimes (371,000) with the majority of these being low-level violence2, 35% as thefts of personal property (249,000), 8% as criminal damage to personal property (55,000), and 6% as robbery (41,000). Given the small sample size for the 10-to-15-year-old element of the CSEW, estimates can fluctuate over time and as a result, trends can be difficult to interpret. Detailed data are available from Tables F21, F22 and F23.

Figure 1: Trends in Crime Survey for England and Wales and police recorded crime, year ending December 1981 to year ending December 2016

Source: Crime Survey for England and Wales, Office for National Statistics and Police recorded crime, Home Office

Notes:

Police recorded crime data are not designated as National Statistics.

Prior to the year ending March 2002, CSEW respondents were asked about their experience of crime in the previous calendar year, so year-labels identify the year in which the crime took place. Following the change to continuous interviewing, respondents' experience of crime relates to the full 12 months prior to interview (that is, a moving reference period). Year-labels for year ending March 2002 onwards identify the CSEW year of interview.

From the year ending March 2012 onwards, police recorded crime data has included offences from additional sources of fraud data.

CSEW data relates to either adults aged 16 and over or to households.

Some forces have revised their data and police recorded crime totals may not agree with those previously published.

Data on fraud and computer misuse are published as Experimental Statistics, which are in the testing phase and not yet fully developed. They are published in order to involve users and stakeholders in their development, and as a means to build in quality at an early stage.

New victimisation questions on fraud and computer misuse were incorporated into the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) from October 2015. Estimates are based on approximately 17,500 cases gathered in the previous 12 months. The questions are currently asked of half the survey sample to test for detrimental effects on the survey as a whole and help ensure that the historical time series is protected.

YE refers to year ending.

The data on this chart refer to different time periods: a) 1981 to 1999 refer to crimes experienced in the calendar year (January to December) b) from year ending March 2002 onwards the estimates relate to crimes experienced in the 12 months before interview, based on interviews carried out in that financial year (April to March) c) the last two data points relate to interviews carried out in the rolling 12 month periods for the latest available 2 years (January to December) .

Download this chart

The likelihood of being a victim of CSEW crime (excluding fraud and computer misuse) has fallen considerably over time; around 14 in 100 adults were victims in the latest survey year compared with around 23 in 100 a decade ago (in the survey year ending March 2006) and around 40 in 100 in 1995 (the peak survey year).

The victimisation rate estimated by the CSEW when fraud and computer misuse offences are included indicates that around 21 in 100 adults were victims of a crime in the latest survey year.

Police recorded crime

The police recorded 4.8 million offences3 in the year ending December 2016, an increase of 9% compared with the previous year. Nearly all of the 44 forces (including the British Transport Police) showed an annual increase but these need to be seen in the context of the renewed focus on the quality of crime recording by the police. This follows inspections of forces by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC)4, the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) inquiry into crime statistics, and the UK Statistics Authority’s decision to remove the National Statistics designation from police recorded crime statistics in 2014. This renewed focus is thought to have led to improved compliance with the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS), leading to a greater proportion of reported crimes being recorded by the police.

In November 2015, HMIC wrote to all Chief Constables advising them that they would be commencing a rolling programme of unannounced inspections of crime recording on an ongoing basis. To date, inspection reports have been published for seven forces. More infomation and details of future inspections can be found on the HMIC website and in the User Guide to Crime Statistics for England and Wales.

Police recorded crime increased during most of the 1980s and then fell each year from 1992 to 1997. Expanded coverage of offences in the police recorded crime collection, following changes to the Home Office Counting Rules (HOCR) in 1998 and the introduction of the NCRS in April 2002, saw general increases in the number of crimes recorded by the police. Following these changes, there was a near-continual decline in police recorded crime between the years ending March 2004 and March 2014; the only exception being the year ending March 2012, when there was an increase following the transfer of responsibility for recording fraud offences to Action Fraud from individual police forces5. Since the year ending March 2014 onwards, total police recorded crime has increased.

Other related sources

Neither the CSEW nor police recorded crime figures provide a total picture of crime. Other sources of information help to provide a fuller picture, including administrative data on anti-social behaviour (ASB) and non-notifiable offences. In addition, the Commercial Victimisation Survey provides estimates of crime against business premises covered in its sample (the survey generally covers premises in three or four industrial sectors each year).

The CSEW showed that an estimated 30% of respondents reported experiencing or witnessing ASB in their local area in the latest survey year. While this is higher than the 28% found in the previous survey year, this estimate has remained at a similar level (between 27% and 30%) since the data were first collected in the survey year ending March 2012. Further information is available in Figures F10 and F11 and Tables F24 and F25.

Police recorded crime also provides information on ASB; around 1.8 million incidents of ASB were recorded by the police (including the British Transport Police) in the latest year, a decrease of 1% compared with the previous year (Figure F10). These are incidents that may still be crimes in law, such as littering or dog fouling, but are not of a level of severity that would result in the recording of a notifiable offence. A review by HMIC in 2012 found that there was a wide variation in the quality of decision-making associated with the recording of ASB. As a result, ASB incident data should be interpreted with caution.

In the year ending September 2016 (the latest period for which data are available6), there were 1.1 million convictions for non-notifiable offences7 that were not covered in police recorded crime or the CSEW, similar to the number seen in the previous year.

In addition, there were 18,000 Penalty Notices for Disorder (PND) issued in relation to non-notifiable offences for the year ending September 2016, a decrease of 25% from the year ending September 2015; the majority of these PNDs related to drunk and disorderly behaviour8. Further information is available in Tables F26a and F26b.

The CSEW is a survey of the population resident in households and traditionally has not covered crimes against businesses. The recent extension to cover adults’ experiences of fraud, particularly that relating to banking and credit card fraud, means victims’ financial institution may also be a victim (for example, of computer hacking or fraud) but the focus of the survey remains on the experiences of household residents as victims of crime9. The police recorded crime series can only provide a partial picture of crimes against the business community (as not all offences come to the attention of the police).

The Commercial Victimisation Survey provides estimates of crime against selected business premises10 in England and Wales and gives some insight into the number of these crimes that go unreported to the police. However, it does not cover all industry sectors and the small sample sizes associated with individual sectors means that caution must be applied when comparing crime rates over time. In the survey year ending December 2015, businesses in the wholesale and retail sector experienced the highest levels of crime – an estimated 4.7 million incidents, a rate of around 12,000 incidents per 1,000 business premises, which is lower than the rate recorded for the previous year (13,000 incidents per 1,000 business premises in the year ending December 2014, Table F27). Findings from the 2016 Commercial Victimisation Survey are due for release on 4 May 2017.

Notes for: What is happening to trends in crime?

The survey of children aged 10 to 15 only covers personal level crime (so excludes household level crime) and, as with the main survey, does not include sexual offences.

80% of violent crimes experienced in the latest survey year resulted in minor or no injury, so in just over three-quarters of cases the violence is low level.

The 4.8 million offences include fraud offences recorded by the police. Excluding fraud offences, there were 4.2 million offences recorded by the police in the year ending December 2016, a 10% rise from last year.

Inspections included the 43 territorial police forces of England and Wales and excluded the British Transport Police.

Offences recorded by Action Fraud continue to be recorded in the police recorded crime series.

Due to anomalies identified in the non-notifiable convictions data, no information has currently been published later than the year ending March 2016.

Non-notifiable offences are offences dealt with exclusively by magistrates’ courts or by the police issuing of a Penalty Notice for Disorder or a Fixed Penalty Notice. Along with non-notifiable offences dealt with by the police (such as speeding), these include many offences that may be dealt with by other agencies – for example, prosecutions by TV Licensing, or the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) for vehicle registration offences.

A pilot scheme was implemented from November 2014 in Leicestershire and Staffordshire and West Yorkshire police forces to reduce the types of out-of-court disposals available for adult offenders. In the pilot areas, the only out-of-court disposals available are community resolutions and conditional cautions.

CSEW Experimental Statistics on fraud against adults resident in households include incidents where the victim has been fully (or partially) reimbursed by their financial provider.

This is a premises based survey; respondents were asked if the business at their current premises had experienced any of a range of crime types in the 12 months prior to interview.

6. How have trends for individual crime types changed?

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) showed that estimates for most individual offence categories did not show significant changes compared with the previous year, although the 10% decrease in total theft offences was statistically significant.

The latest decrease in total theft offences estimated by the CSEW reflects the long-term trend, with total theft offences now 70% lower than the peak in 1995 and at the lowest number recorded since the survey began in 1981. In the year ending December 2016, the 3.4 million theft offences estimated by the CSEW accounted for just under one-third (30%) of all CSEW incidents.

While we are not yet able to report on trends in fraud and computer misuse offences based on the new Experimental Statistics in the CSEW, estimated incidence rates for fraud (8 in 100 adults) show that this type of crime was one of the most prevalent when compared with other offence types measured by the survey. The incidence rate for computer misuse (4 in 100 adults) has been estimated at a similar level to that of vehicle-related theft (4 in 100 adults) and criminal damage (5 in 100 adults), whilst the robbery incidence rate estimated by the survey (less than 1 in 100 adults) falls substantially lower than incidence rates for all other offence types.

Table 1a: Crime Survey for England and Wales incidence rates and numbers of incidents for year ending December 2016 and percentage change1

England and Wales

Adults aged 16 and over/households

January 2016 to December 2016 compared with:

Jan '16 to Dec '16

Jan '95 to
Dec '95

Apr '05 to
Mar '06

Apr '10 to
Mar '11

Jan '15 to
Dec '15

Offence group2

Rate per 1,000 population3

Number of incidents (thousands)4

Number of incidents - percentage change and significance5

Violence

29

1,336

-65

*

-33

*

-30

*

4

with injury

14

647

-71

*

-40

*

-40

*

5

without injury

15

689

-56

*

-23

*

-16

3

Robbery

3

126

-63

*

-58

*

-47

*

2

Theft offences6

..

3,436

-70

*

-39

*

-34

*

-10

*

Theft from the person

8

367

-46

*

-35

*

-33

*

-9

Other theft of personal property

15

704

-66

*

-39

*

-27

*

-11

Unweighted base - number of adults

36,047

Domestic burglary

27

664

-72

*

-35

*

-36

*

-7

in a dwelling

19

474

-73

*

-34

*

-36

*

-5

in a non-connected building to a dwelling

8

190

-71

*

-38

*

-36

*

-11

Other household theft

25

608

-61

*

-25

*

-35

*

-13

*

Unweighted base - number of households

35,952

Vehicle-related theft

42

796

-81

*

-52

*

-32

*

-9

Unweighted base - number of vehicle owners

28,752

Bicycle theft

23

297

-55

*

-29

*

-42

*

-10

Unweighted base - number of bicycle owners

17,127

Criminal damage

48

1,182

-64

*

-55

*

-45

*

-2

Unweighted base - number of households

35,952

`

ALL CSEW CRIME6

..

6,080

-68

*

-43

*

-36

*

-5

Fraud and computer misuse7,8

117

5,398

..

..

..

..

Fraud

75

3,480

..

..

..

..

Bank and credit account fraud

53

2,454

..

..

..

..

Non-investment fraud

18

827

..

..

..

..

Advance fee fraud

2

102

..

..

..

..

Other fraud

2

97

..

..

..

..

Computer misuse

42

1,917

..

..

..

..

Computer virus

28

1,275

..

..

..

..

Unauthorised access to personal information (including hacking)

14

642

..

..

..

..

Unweighted base - number of adults

17,500

ALL CSEW CRIME INCLUDING FRAUD AND COMPUTER MISUSE

..

11,478

..

..

..

..

Source: Crime Survey for England and Wales, Office for National Statistics

Notes:

1. More detail on further years can be found in Appendix tables A1 and A2.

2. Section 5 of the User Guide provides more information about the crime types included in this table.

3. Rates for violence, robbery, theft from the person and other theft of personal property are quoted per 1,000 adults; rates for domestic burglary, other household theft, and criminal damage are quoted per 1,000 households; rates for vehicle-related theft and bicycle theft are quoted per 1,000 vehicle-owning and bicycle-owning households respectively.

4. Data may not sum to totals shown due to rounding.

5. Statistically significant change at the 5% level is indicated by an asterisk.

6. It is not possible to construct a rate for all theft offences or CSEW crime because rates for household offences are based on rates per household, and those for personal offences on rates per adult, and the two cannot be combined.

7. Data on fraud and computer misuse are published as Experimental Statistics, which are in the testing phase and not yet fully developed. They are published in order to involve users and stakeholders in their development, and as a means to build in quality at an early stage.

8. New victimisation questions on fraud and computer misuse were incorporated into the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) from October 2015. Estimates are based on approximately 17,500 cases gathered in the previous twelve months. The questions are currently asked of half the survey sample to test for detrimental effects on the survey as a whole and help ensure that the historical time series is protected.

Download this table

Table 1b provides alternative measures of crime based upon prevalence rates (the number of victims expressed as a percentage of all households or adults) and numbers of victims. The latest estimate showed that 6.6 million adults aged 16 and over were a victim of at least one crime (excluding fraud and computer misuse) in the year prior to interview. In a given time period there can be more victims of crime than the number of incidents, as some incidents (such as burglary) affect everyone in a household. In calculating the number of victims of all CSEW crime, all adults resident in a household that had experienced one incident of crime against the household are counted as victims of the crime. For individual crime types, the numbers of victims will be lower than the numbers of incidents, as people or households can experience repeat victimisation. It is possible that due to repeat victimisation, there will be some differences in short-term trends between the measures based on numbers of incidents and numbers of victims.

Table 1b: Crime Survey for England and Wales prevalence rates and numbers of victims for year ending December 2016 and percentage change1

England and Wales

Adults aged 16 and over/households

January 2016 to December 2016 compared with:

Jan '16 to Dec '16

Jan '95 to
Dec '95

Apr '05 to
Mar '06

Apr '10 to
Mar '11

Jan '15 to
Dec '15

Offence group2

Percentage, victims once or more3

Number of victims (thousands)4

Numbers of victims - percentage change and significance5

Violence

1.8

830

-57

*

-29

*

-31

*

1

with injury

0.9

409

-66

*

-40

*

-42

*

-3

without injury

1.0

443

-49

*

-17

*

-17

*

4

Robbery

0.2

112

-60

*

-52

*

-43

*

2

Theft offences6

9.7

4,478

-65

*

-32

*

-31

*

-10

*

Theft from the person

0.7

341

-48

*

-33

*

-32

*

-11

Other theft of personal property

1.3

622

-63

*

-38

*

-27

*

-10

Unweighted base - number of adults

36,047

Domestic burglary

2.1

520

-71

*

-33

*

-36

*

-8

in a dwelling

1.5

365

-72

*

-34

*

-38

*

-7

in a non-connected building to a dwelling

0.7

162

-71

*

-34

*

-32

*

-9

Other household theft

2.1

503

-53

*

-16

*

-31

*

-12

*

Unweighted base - number of households

35,952

Vehicle-related theft

3.6

681

-77

*

-48

*

-30

*

-9

*

Unweighted base - number of vehicle owners

28,752

Bicycle theft

2.1

270

-52

*

-25

*

-38

*

-11

Unweighted base - number of bicycle owners

17,127

Criminal damage

3.5

857

-59

*

-50

*

-40

*

-5

Unweighted base - number of households

35,952

`

ALL CSEW CRIME7

14.2

6,551

-59

*

-34

*

-31

*

-7

*

Fraud and computer misuse8,9

9.0

4,165

..

..

..

..

Fraud

6.2

2,848

..

..

..

..

Bank and credit account fraud

4.4

2,028

..

..

..

..

Non-investment fraud

1.6

735

..

..

..

..

Advance fee fraud

0.2

79

..

..

..

..

Other fraud

0.2

77

..

..

..

..

Computer misuse

3.2

1,498

..

..

..

..

Computer virus

2.2

1,001

..

..

..

..

Unauthorised access to personal information (including hacking)

1.2

532

..

..

..

..

Unweighted base - number of adults

17,500

ALL CSEW CRIME INCLUDING FRAUD AND COMPUTER MISUSE

21.0

9,782

..

..

..

..

Source: Crime Survey for England and Wales, Office for National Statistics

Notes:

1. More detail on further years can be found in Appendix tables A3 and A8.

2. Section 5 of the User Guide provides more information about the crime types included in this table.

3. Percentages for violence, robbery, theft from the person and other theft of personal property are quoted for adults; percentages for domestic burglary, other household theft, and criminal damage are quoted for households; percentages for vehicle-related theft and bicycle theft are quoted for vehicle-owning and bicycle-owning households respectively.

4. Where applicable, numbers in sub-categories will not sum to totals, because adults/households may have been a victim of more than one crime.

5. Statistically significant change at the 5% level is indicated by an asterisk.

6. This is the estimated percentage/number of adults who have been a victim of at least one personal theft crime or have been resident in a household that was a victim of at least one household theft crime.

7. This is the estimated percentage/number of adults who have been a victim of at least one personal crime or have been resident in a household that was a victim of at least one household crime.

8. Data on fraud and computer misuse are published as Experimental Statistics, which are in the testing phase and not yet fully developed. They are published in order to involve users and stakeholders in their development, and as a means to build in quality at an early stage.

9. New victimisation questions on fraud and computer misuse were incorporated into the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) from October 2015. Estimates are based on approximately 17,500 cases gathered in the previous twelve months. The questions are currently asked of half the survey sample to test for detrimental effects on the survey as a whole and help ensure that the historical time series is protected.

Download this table

As shown in Table 2, the 9% increase1 in the number of police recorded crimes in the latest year was largely driven by increases in violence against the person offences (up 19%, from 936,281 to 1,117,969) and public order offences (up 35%, from 192,250 to 259,432). There were also increases in criminal damage and arson offences (up 5%, from 530,234 to 556,077), and sexual offences (up 12%, from 103,292 to 116,012). Improvements in crime recording practices and processes by the police and an increase in the willingness of victims to come forward and report offences (particularly in the case of sexual offences), are thought to have been important drivers. Around 26% of all sexual offences related to non-recent offences, a similar proportion to that seen in last quarter’s release2.

Following a generally downward trend, there has been an increase in the total number of theft offences recorded by the police (up 4%, from 1,751,761 to 1,820,079). This is a result of rises in a number of theft categories, such as vehicle offences (up 8% to 389,371), domestic burglary (up 4% to 200,659), shoplifting (up 8% to 358,235), and bicycle theft (up 4% to 90,910).

The total number of robberies recorded by the police also increased (up 10% to 55,824); the first rise since year ending March 2011. There was also a rise of 6% in theft from the person offences (from 81,434 to 86,548 offences), which is a similar type of offence. Both involve theft in public places with robbery involving the use or threat of force or violence in the course of the crime.

Some of these categories are less prone to changes in recording practices. Findings from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) inspections, published in 2014, indicated that compliance with crime recording standards was notably higher for robbery (86% of reported robberies were recorded as crime) compared with those for violent and sexual offences (where 67% and 74% of reports of crime were recorded respectively). Section 11 provides more discussion on this issue.

While there is yet to be comparable year-on-year data from the CSEW, other sources suggest that the volume of fraud has risen in the last year. There was a 4% increase in the number of fraud offences recorded by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) in England and Wales (up to 641,5393) compared with the previous year. The increase was primarily due to the number of fraud offences referred by Action Fraud, which increased by 26,318 offences (12%). Fraud offences recorded by Cifas also showed an increase, up by 7,620 offences (3%). In contrast, offences recorded by Financial Fraud Action UK decreased by 9,516 offences (10%) in the year ending December 2016.

Figure 2 focuses on selected police recorded crime offences with notable changes in the latest year compared with the previous year.

Figure 2: Selected police recorded crime offences in England and Wales: volumes and percentage change between year ending December 2015 and year ending December 2016

Source: Police recorded crime, Home Office

Notes:

Download this chart

Table 2: Police recorded crimes in England and Wales - rate, number and percentage change for year ending December 20161,2,3

England and Wales

Jan '16 to Dec '16

Jan '16 to Dec '16 compared with:

Apr '05 to
Mar '06

Apr '10 to
Mar '11

Jan '15 to
Dec '15

Offence group

Rate per 1,000 population

Number of offences

Number of offences - percentage change

VICTIM-BASED CRIME

63

3,665,961

-25

2

9

Violence against the person offences

19

1,117,969

33

68

19

Homicide

0

697

-9

9

21

Violence with injury4

8

456,991

-16

24

10

Violence without injury5

11

660,281

124

123

27

Sexual offences

2

116,012

92

115

12

Rape

1

39,335

172

148

13

Other sexual offences

1

76,677

67

102

12

Robbery offences

1

55,824

-43

-27

10

Robbery of business property

0

5,567

-36

-28

2

Robbery of personal property

1

50,257

-44

-27

11

Theft offences

31

1,820,079

-34

-14

4

Burglary

7

404,282

-37

-23

1

Domestic burglary

3

200,659

-33

-22

4

Non-domestic burglary

4

203,623

-41

-23

-2

Vehicle offences

7

389,371

-51

-13

8

Theft of a motor vehicle

2

92,868

-62

-21

16

Theft from a vehicle

4

247,649

-51

-21

4

`

Interfering with a motor vehicle

1

48,854

-32

63

12

Theft from the person

1

86,548

-30

-7

6

Bicycle theft

2

90,910

-20

-17

4

Shoplifting

6

358,235

21

17

8

All other theft offences6

8

490,733

-36

-22

1

Criminal damage and arson

10

556,077

-53

-20

5

OTHER CRIMES AGAINST SOCIETY

9

498,658

-3

4

16

Drug offences

2

139,278

-22

-40

-8

Trafficking of drugs

0

24,638

-3

-24

-6

Possession of drugs

2

114,640

-25

-43

-9

Possession of weapons offences

1

29,324

-26

11

20

Public order offences

4

259,432

17

50

35

Miscellaneous crimes against society

1

70,624

-5

47

17

TOTAL FRAUD OFFENCES7

11

641,539

..

..

4

TOTAL RECORDED CRIME - ALL OFFENCES INCLUDING FRAUD7

83

4,806,158

-13

16

9

Source: Police recorded crime, Home Office

Notes:

1. Police recorded crime data are not designated as National Statistics.

2. Police recorded crime statistics based on data from all 44 forces in England and Wales (including the British Transport Police).

3. Appendix tables A4 and A7 provide detailed footnotes and further years.

4. Includes attempted murder, intentional destruction of viable unborn child, causing death by dangerous driving/careless driving when under the influence of drink or drugs, more serious wounding or other act endangering life (including grievous bodily harm with and without intent), causing death by aggravated vehicle taking and less serious wounding offences.

5. Includes threat or conspiracy to murder, harassment, other offences against children and assault without injury (formerly common assault where there is no injury).

6. All other theft offences now includes all 'making off without payment' offences recorded since year ending March 2003. Making off without payment was previously included within the fraud offence group, but following a change in the classification for year ending March 2014, this change has been applied to previous years of data to give a consistent time series.

7. Total fraud offences cover crimes recorded by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau via Action Fraud, Cifas and Financial Fraud Action UK. Action Fraud have taken over the recording of fraud offences on behalf of individual police forces. Percentage changes compared with earlier years are not presented, as fraud figures for year ending March 2006 and year ending March 2011 covered only those crimes recorded by individual police forces. Given the addition of new data sources, it is not possible to make direct comparsions with earlier years.

Download this table

Offences involving firearms4 increased by 13% (to 5,864) compared with the previous year (5,176 offences). This was largely driven by a 15% increase (up to 2,497, from 2,162) in offences involving handguns and partly by a 28% increase (up to 532, from 416) in offences involving shotguns and a 10% increase (up to 1,523, from 1,379) in offences involving imitation weapons (such as BB guns5). The latest rise follows a general downward trend in firearm offences, with offences 47% below the peak around a decade ago.

Offences that involved a knife or sharp instrument6 also showed an increase (14% to 32,448 offences7) during the latest year. However, as with offences involving firearms, we have seen a general downward trend in this series over the longer-term, with falls seen between the years ending March 2011 and March 2014. The latest figures show the volume of offences returning to levels similar to those seen 6 years ago (year ending March 2011), the earliest point for which comparable data are available.

More detailed commentary on trends in violent offences, sexual offences, offences involving weapons, fraud offences and theft offences is included in this release. In addition, we are in the process of producing a series of overview articles, each focusing on a specific crime type, that will provide information on long-term trends, victim profiles and the nature of incidents (where available). The first of these, an overview of fraud statistics, was published alongside the quarterly report “Crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2016”. In the meantime, the statistical bulletin Focus on Property Crime and the compendium, Focus on Violent Crime and Sexual Offences, provide a description of patterns and trends for each of the main offence types.

Notes for: How have trends for individual crime types changed?

This 9% increase in police recorded crime includes fraud offences recorded by the police. Excluding fraud offences, there were 4.2 million offences recorded by the police in the year ending December 2016, a 10% rise from last year.

Non-recent offences are those that took place over 12 months before being reported.

This figure is taken from Table A4 and includes four fraud offences recorded by individual police forces (rather than via Action Fraud). The total fraud offences recorded in England and Wales reported in Table A5 differs slightly, as it excludes these four offences.

Firearms include shotguns; handguns; rifles; imitation weapons such as BB guns or soft air weapons; other weapons such as CS gas or pepper spray and stun guns; and unidentified weapons. These figures exclude conventional air weapons, such as air rifles.

A type of air gun that fires spherical projectiles.

Only selected violent offences can be broken down by whether a knife or sharp instrument was used. These are: homicide; attempted murder; threats to kill; assault with injury and assault with intent to cause serious harm; robbery; rape; and sexual assault.

Includes data from all police forces, including Thames Valley, who have reported that they had previously undercounted offences following the implementation of their new crime recording system; Section 10 of this release has more information regarding this issue.

7. Latest violent crime figures continue to present a complex picture

Violent crime covers a wide range of offences including minor assaults (such as pushing and shoving), harassment and abuse (that result in no physical harm), through to wounding and homicide. For the population and offences that it covers, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) provides the better measure of trends in overall violent crime. The police recorded crime series is restricted to violent offences that have been reported to, and recorded by, the police. However, due to the renewed focus on the quality of crime recording by the police, this crime series is not currently believed to provide a reliable measure of trends, owing to the ensuing efforts of police forces to tighten recording practice and improve recording processes.

Main findings

Over the longer-term, levels of violent crime estimated by the CSEW have shown substantial falls. These declines continued until 2014, after which estimates of violence from the CSEW have been fairly flat.

CSEW findings for the latest survey year show no change in levels of violence compared with the previous survey year (the apparent 4% increase was not statistically significant).

Violence against the person offences recorded by the police rose by 19% in the latest year and recorded levels are at the highest seen in a 12-month period since the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) in April 2002.

Within the overall category of violence against the person, the expansion of the harassment category to include two additional offences1 has accounted for nearly 4 in 10 of the recent rise in violent crime. Improvements in crime recording practices, as well as a possible rise in the proportion of violent crimes reported to the police (particularly in the case of domestic abuse), are also thought to have contributed to this rise. Alongside this, it is possible there have been small, but genuine, increases in some types of violent crime.

In the category of homicide, which also sits within violence against the person, the police recorded 697 offences in the latest year, 121 more than in the previous year (a 21% increase)2. However, this includes the 96 cases of manslaughter that resulted from the events in Hillsborough in 19893. Excluding those 96 cases, the increase in police recorded homicides is much lower, at 4%.

Crime Survey for England and Wales

CSEW violence includes incidents with and without injury and also covers attempted incidents.

Latest CSEW data showed there were an estimated 1.3 million incidents of violence experienced by adults aged 16 and over in the latest survey year; no change from the previous survey year (the apparent 4% rise was not statistically significant). The apparent 5% increase in the sub-category of “violence with injury” and apparent 3% increase in the sub-category of “violence without injury” were also not statistically significant (Figure 3).

The estimated number of CSEW violence incidents rose sharply through the early 1990s (peaking in 1995) and then fell steeply until the survey year ending March 2002. Violence declined between the survey year ending March 2002 and survey year ending March 2014, but since this period there has been a fairly flat trend.

Around 2 in every 100 adults were a victim of CSEW violent crime in the latest survey year, compared with around 3 in 100 adults in the survey year ending March 2006 and 5 in 100 adults in 1995 (the peak year).

Estimates of violence against 10 to 15 year olds, as measured by the CSEW, can be found in Table F22.

Figure 3: Trends in Crime Survey for England and Wales violence, year ending December 1981 to year ending December 2016

Source: Crime Survey for England and Wales, Office for National Statistics

Notes:

Prior to the year ending March 2002, CSEW respondents were asked about their experience of crime in the previous calendar year, so year-labels identify the year in which the crime took place. Following the change to continuous interviewing, respondents' experience of crime relates to the full 12 months prior to interview (that is, a moving reference period). Year-labels for the year ending March 2002 onwards identify the CSEW year of interview.

Download this chart

Trends in violent crime, as shown by the CSEW, are also reflected in the most recent evidence available from research conducted by the Violence and Society Research Group at Cardiff University. Findings from their annual survey, covering a sample of hospital emergency departments and walk-in centres in England and Wales, show that serious violence-related attendances in 2016 were down compared with 2015 and continue a generally long-term downward trend.

Police recorded crime

Violent offences in police recorded data are referred to as “violence against the person” and include homicide, violence with injury and violence without injury4. As with the CSEW, both actual and attempted assaults are included in the figures. It should also be noted that the police recorded crime category of violence against the person also includes some offences, such as harassment and stalking, in which there is no physical assault involved.

Recent changes in recording practice make interpreting trends in violence against the person offences difficult. It is known that violent offences are more prone than some other offences to subjective judgement about whether or not to record a crime. The Crime-recording: making the victim count report, published by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) on 18 November 2014, found that “violence against the person” offences had the highest under-recording rates across police forces in England and Wales. Nationally, an estimated 1 in 3 (33%) reports of violence that should have been logged as crimes were not recorded as such.

There was a 19% increase in the number of violence against the person offences recorded by the police in the latest year (up to 1,117,969) compared with the previous year. Part of this increase is due to the expansion of the harassment category to include two additional notifiable offences. Improvements in crime recording practices are also thought to be an important driver of this increase, as well as a potential increase in the proportion of victims reporting crimes to the police, particularly in cases of domestic abuse. It is also possible there have been small, but genuine, increases in some types of violent crime.

The “violence without injury” sub-category showed an increase of 27% over the same period (up to 660,281 offences), while the “violence with injury” sub-category showed a smaller increase of 10% (up to 456,991 offences). It is thought that recording improvements are more likely to affect relatively less-serious violent offences and helps explain the larger increase in the sub-category “violence without injury” compared with “violence with injury”.

The increase in “violence without injury” is partially due to a 53% rise in harassment offences in the latest year compared with the previous year (up to 202,755 from 132,155). One factor that has contributed to this rise in harassment is the expansion of this category in April 2015 to include two additional notifiable offences5 that were previously not included in the police recorded crime series. These are “Disclosure of private sexual photographs and films (including on the internet) with the intent to cause distress or anxiety” and “Sending letters (including emails) with intent to cause distress or anxiety”6; the latter is thought to account for 97% of these newly added offences7.

It is possible to look at the impact of adding these two additional notifiable offences, based on data from 38 forces (from the Home Office Data Hub). As these data include a full break down of offence classifications, it is possible to look at year-on-year changes excluding the two additional offences. This indicates that without these offences there would have been smaller rises in relevant categories as follows:

19% in harassment offences rather than 53%

19% in violence without injury rather than 27%

14% in total violence against the person rather than 19%

Within “violence without injury” there is an increase in modern slavery offences, which have risen to 1,721 from the 565 recorded the previous year. This increase in modern slavery offences is in part due to an improved recording of modern slavery since the introduction of this new offence category in July 20158. A 2016 report by the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner was critical of the ongoing under-recording of such offences, noting that whilst 8849 modern slavery offences were recorded in the year ending March 2016, there was over three times that number of referrals (3,146) to the National Referral Mechanism over the same period and that the number of recorded offences did not fully reflect the true extent of modern slavery in England and Wales. It is likely that the subsequent increase in the number of crimes recorded in this category reflects growing awareness and improving recording processes within the police service with respect to the recording of modern slavery offences.

The increase in the “violence with injury” sub-category includes a 7% rise in the number of attempted murder offences (a volume increase of 46); these figures may also have been influenced by improvements in crime recording. Attempted murder rose in 19 of the 44 police forces (including the British Transport Police) in England and Wales, in the year ending December 2016. Prior to the recent improvements in recording practices, it is possible that some police officers may have been applying Crown Prosecution Service charging standards (guidelines on what charges should be brought against suspects) when deciding what type of crime to record, rather than basing the decision on the Home Office Counting Rules (HOCR), which require offences to be recorded in line with the criminal offence committed. Attempted murder is an important example of this potential issue, as offences may have previously been recorded (and charged) as another type of violent crime that is easier to prove in court, such as “assault with intent to cause serious harm.”

All police forces recorded a rise in violence in the latest year compared with the previous year. In percentage terms, the largest increase was reported by Northumbria Police, which recorded an increase of 75%, which was an additional 13,470 offences compared with the previous year (up to 31,476). Other large percentage increases included Durham Constabulary (up 70% to 13,145 offences), West Yorkshire Police (up 40% to 62,402 offences), and Avon and Somerset Constabulary (up 37% to 36,759 offences), as shown in Tables P1 and P2. When interpreting these figures, it is important to bare in mind that these increases will reflect recording improvements and the extent of such effects is likely to differ across police forces.

A number of forces have indicated that the rise in recorded violence is a result of a greater proportion of reports of crime being recorded rather than a genuine rise in violent crime. For example, data from the Metropolitan Police Service showed that while police recorded violence against the person increased by 7% in the latest year, the number of “calls for service” (for example, emergency and non-emergency calls from members of the public) relating to violent crime decreased by around 2% over the same period.

Domestic abuse

Another possible factor behind the rise in police recorded violent offences is an increase in the reporting of domestic abuse and the subsequent recording of these offences by the police. In 2015, an HMIC report detailed the improvements in the police response to domestic abuse that had taken place across England and Wales. It concluded that recent increases in the number of domestic abuse-related crimes were due, in part, to police forces improving their recording of domestic abuse incidents as crimes, and to forces actively encouraging victims to come forward to report these crimes.

The Home Office has been collecting information from the police, since April 2015, on whether recorded offences are related to domestic abuse. Crimes should be “flagged” as being domestic abuse-related by the police if the offence meets the government definition of domestic violence and abuse10. Data for the year ending December 2016 showed that violence against the person offences were the most likely to be flagged, with 32% of such offences flagged as domestic abuse-related. The offence group with the next highest proportion of offences flagged was sexual offences at 13%, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Proportion of offences recorded by the police in England and Wales that were flagged as domestic abuse-related, selected offence groups, year ending December 2016

Source: Police recorded crime, Home Office

Notes:

Police recorded crime data are not designated as National Statistics.

Data are provisional and have not been reconciled with police forces.

Download this chart

At present, less than 2 years of data on offences flagged by the police as being domestic abuse-related are available and it is therefore not possible to compare the year-on-year change.

Since the year ending March 2005, the CSEW has included a self-completion questionnaire module on intimate violence, for persons aged 16 to 59 only, which provides a measure of the proportion of people who have been victims of domestic abuse in this age group over time.

Estimates from the self-completion section published in the Domestic abuse in England and Wales, year ending March 2016 release showed that the proportion of all adults aged 16 to 59 who had been victims of domestic abuse in the last year (including attempted offences) had remained the same as for the previous survey year (both 6.1%). Prior to this, changes in prevalence from year to year have been small and not statistically significant, although the cumulative effect of these changes over a number of years has resulted in a statistically significant lower prevalence for the year ending March 2016 (6.1%) compared with the year ending March 2012 (7.0%), indicating a longer-term underlying downward trend (Table S41).

Data from the year ending March 2016 survey year showed that women, and especially younger women, were more likely to be victims of domestic abuse than other demographic groups, for example, 11.9% of women aged 16 to 19 were victims, for the time period year ending March 2014 to year ending March 2016. In comparison, 6.1% of all adults and 6.9% of men aged 16 to 19 were victims of domestic abuse for the same time period. Further details are published in Domestic abuse in England and Wales, year ending March 2016.

Homicide

Unlike many other offences in the “violence against the person” category, the quality of recording of homicides is thought to have remained consistently good.

The police recorded 697 homicides in the latest year, 121 more (21% increase) than in the previous year , as shown in Tables F3a and F3b11,12. However, the 697 homicides recorded in the year ending December 2016 include the 96 cases of manslaughter that resulted from events in Hillsborough in 1989; excluding these cases, the number of homicides increased by 4%.

Historically, the number of homicides increased from around 300 per year in the early 1960s to over 800 per year in the early years of this century, which was at a faster rate than population growth over that period. Over the past decade, the volume of homicides has generally decreased while the population of England and Wales has continued to grow. The rate of homicide has fallen by just under one-third (30%) between the year ending March 2006 and the year ending March 2016, from 14 homicides per 1 million of the population to 10 homicides per 1 million. For the latest year (year ending December 2016), the rate was 12 homicides per 1 million. Excluding the 96 Hillsborough cases, the rate remained at 10 homicides per 1 million population.

“Disclosure of private sexual photographs and films with the intent to cause distress or anxiety” and “Sending letters with intent to cause distress or anxiety.”

This includes seven offences of corporate manslaughter relating to the Croydon tram derailment.

The 96 offences of manslaughter were recorded in the year ending June 2016 figures, and not in 1989, due to the result of the recent inquest into the events.

There are some closely-related offences in the police recorded crime series, such as public order offences, that have no identifiable victim and are contained within the “Other crimes against society” category.

The two additional harassment offences are included within all 4 quarters (12 months data) for the latest year (ending December 2016), while the comparator year data (ending December 2015) only includes these additional offences in 3 quarters. In future quarterly releases, the comparator year will begin to include the additional harassment offences in more quarters and we therefore expect to see the extent of the increase in the “violence without injury” subcategory lessen.

In addition to letters, this offence also covers electronic communications such as emails, text messages and those sent via social media.

Based on data from 40 forces supplied via the Home Office Data Hub.

This new offence category includes offences previously included under other offence types. More information can be found in the attached notes to Appendix Table A4.

Figures for the year ending March 2016 have been revised slightly since publication of the report from 884 modern slavery offences to 882.

Any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality.

Homicide includes the offences of murder, manslaughter, corporate manslaughter and infanticide. Figures from the Homicide Index for the time period April 2014 to March 2016, which take account of further police investigations and court outcomes, were published in Focus on Violent Crime and Sexual Offences: year ending March 2016 on 9 February 2016.

This includes seven offences of corporate manslaughter relating to the Croydon train crash.

Main findings

The most recent estimates from the self-completion questionnaire module in the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) on intimate violence (for the year ending March 2016) showed that the proportion of adults aged 16 to 59 who had been victims of sexual assaults in the last year (including attempted offences) had not statistically significantly changed between the year ending March 2016 (2.0%, equivalent to 645,000 victims) and the year ending March 2015 (1.7%).

There was an increase of 12% in sexual offences recorded by the police in the year ending December 2016 (up to 116,012 offences) compared with the previous year. It is not thought that police recorded crime data currently provide a reliable indication of trends in sexual offences. The increases are believed to have resulted, in part, from an improvement in the recording of sexual offences by the police, with police forces also reporting an increased willingness of victims to come forward and report these crimes.

Crime Survey for England and Wales

Due to the small number of sexual offences identified in the face-to-face interview section of the CSEW, estimates of the volume of incidents are prone to fluctuation and therefore not included in the main CSEW estimate of crime. Since the year ending March 2005, the CSEW has included a self-completion module on intimate violence, for persons aged 16 to 59 only, which provides an improved measure of the proportion of people in this age group who have been victims of sexual offences. The upper age limit of 59 for the self-completion module may be increased or removed entirely from April 2017 following new development work.

The most recent headline estimates from this self-completion section of the CSEW, from the year ending March 2016 (published in the Focus on Violent Crime and Sexual Offences: year ending March 2016 release) showed that the proportion of all adults aged 16 to 59 who had been victims of sexual assaults in the last year (including attempted offences) had not significantly changed between the latest survey year (2.0%) and the previous survey year (1.7%). These figures have remained at around 2.0% since the survey year ending March 2009, albeit with some year-on-year fluctuation (Appendix Table 4.05).

Police recorded crime

There was an increase of 12% in the number of sexual offences recorded by the police in the latest year compared with the previous year (up to 116,012, as shown in Tables F6a and F6b). Sexual offences have reached the highest volume recorded since the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) in April 2002. The rate of year-on-year increases, however, has slowed over recent quarters, and the latest increase is considerably less than that seen between the 2014 and 2015 calendar years (29%).

Police recorded rape increased by 13% (to 39,335 offences) compared with the previous year, while other sexual offences increased by 12% (to 76,677). Offence categories that directly relate to sexual offences against children1 contributed just over one-third (36%) to the total increase in the number of sexual offences recorded by the police.

Between the year ending March 2008 and the year ending March 2013, the trend in sexual offences was broadly flat with small increases recorded in some years. Since the year ending March 2013, police recorded sexual offences have risen consistently. In the year ending March 2014, the increases were generally driven by a rise in the recording of non-recent offences (those that took place more than 12 months before being recorded by the police). While non-recent offences remain an important contributor to the latest rise, it was largely due to increases in current offences (those that took place within 12 months of being recorded by the police)2.

Overall, the increases are believed to have resulted from both an improvement in the recording of sexual offences by the police and an increased willingness of victims to come forward and report these crimes to the police, and hence we feel these data do not currently provide a reliable indication of trends in sexual offences.

The Crime-recording: making the victim count report, published by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) in late 2014, found that sexual offences had been substantially under-recorded (by 26% nationally) and led to police forces reviewing and improving their recording processes. Additionally, the high-profile coverage of sexual offences and the police response to reports of non-recent sexual offending (for example, through Operation Yewtree which began in 2012) are likely to have had an effect on the willingness of victims to come forward and report offences of this nature.

More recently, the high-profile coverage of historical child sexual offence allegations by former footballers, alongside a dedicated police operation set up to investigate these, is likely to have an ongoing influence on victims’ willingness to come forward.

Police recorded sexual offences represent a small proportion of all victim-based crime (excluding fraud; 3.2% in the latest year) and therefore changes do not substantially affect the overall victim-based police recorded crime trend. Figure 5 illustrates that there have been almost continual year-on-year increases in the proportion of police recorded victim-based crime comprising sexual offences since the year ending March 2003 (1.0%), with the only exception being the year ending March 2007. These increases have become more pronounced over the last 4 years (more than doubling over this period, from 1.5% in the year ending March 2012 to 3.2% in the latest survey year).

Figure 5: Police recorded sexual offences as a proportion of victim-based crime in England and Wales, year ending March 2003 to year ending December 2016

Source: Police recorded crime, Home Office

Notes:

Police recorded crime data are not designated as National Statistics.

Annual data are shown for the year ending March, with the exception of the latest data for 2015 and 2016, which show the year ending December.

This includes “Rape of a male or female child under 16”, “Rape of a male or female child under 13”, “Sexual assault on a male or female child under 13”, “Sexual activity involving a child under 13 or under 16” and “Abuse of children through sexual exploitation”.

9. Police recorded offences involving weapons rise

Some of the more serious offences in the police recorded crime data (violence against the person, robbery and sexual offences) can be broken down by whether or not a knife or sharp instrument was involved1.

Data are also available for police recorded crimes involving the use of firearms (that is, if a firearm is fired, used as a blunt instrument, or used as a threat).

As offences involving the use of weapons are relatively low in volume, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) is not able to provide reliable estimates for numbers of such incidents.

Main findings

In the latest year, the police recorded a 14% increase in offences involving a knife or sharp instrument, compared with the previous year. While it is difficult to be certain what has driven this rise, as these figures can be influenced by a wide range of factors, the available evidence suggests improvements in recording practices, as well as an actual rise in knife crime, are both likely to have contributed.

Offences involving firearms in the latest year also increased, by 13% compared with the previous year.

Offences involving knives or sharp instruments2

In the latest year, the police recorded 32,448 offences involving a knife or sharp instrument, a 14% increase3 compared with the previous year (28,427). The past 2 years have seen a rise in the number of offences involving a knife or sharp instrument recorded. There was a general downward trend in this series over the longer-term, with falls seen between the years ending March 2011 and March 2014. The latest figures show the volume of offences returning to levels similar to those seen in year ending March 2011, the earliest point for which comparable data for all forces are available.

The majority of the offence categories for which data are collected showed increases. The category of “assault with injury and assault with intent to cause serious harm” showed the largest rise in terms of volume of offences (from 14,783 to 16,747, up 13%), and notable rises were also seen in robbery (from 10,581 to 12,037, up 14%) and threats to kill (from 2,039 to 2,606, up 28%). The rise in robbery was more pronounced than that seen in the last quarter (5%), mirroring recent increases in the category as a whole.

The majority of police forces (33 of the 44) recorded a rise in offences involving knives and sharp instruments compared with the previous year. The force that showed the largest volume increase was the Metropolitan Police (accounting for 28% of the increase in England and Wales). Data for police force areas are published in the Home Office’s knife crime open data table4.

Table 3: Selected violent and sexual offences involving a knife or sharp instrument recorded by the police in England and Wales, year ending March 2011 to year ending December 2016 and percentage change1,2,3,4,5,6

England and Wales

Apr '10 to
Mar '11

Apr '11 to
Mar '12

Apr '12 to
Mar '13

Apr '13 to
Mar '14

Jan '15 to
Dec '15

Jan '16 to
Dec '16

Jan '16 to
Dec '16
compared
with
previous
year

Number of selected offences involving a knife or sharp instrument

Percentage
change

Attempted murder

240

246

198

248

356

327

-8

Threats to kill

1,462

1,183

1,188

1,317

2,039

2,606

28

Assault with injury and assault with intent to cause serious harm7

13,941

12,621

11,343

11,551

14,783

16,747

13

Robbery

16,438

16,417

13,194

11,910

10,581

12,037

14

Rape

258

237

190

261

352

374

6

Sexual assault8

93

72

88

97

127

154

21

Total selected offences

32,432

30,776

26,201

25,384

28,238

32,245

14

Homicide9

237

211

195

204

189

203

7

Total selected offences including homicide

32,669

30,987

26,396

25,588

28,427

32,448

14

Rate per million population - selected offences involving a knife or sharp instrument

Total selected offences including homicide

587

552

467

449

495

561

Source: Police recorded crime, Home Office

Notes:

1. Police recorded crime data are not designated as National Statistics.

2. Police recorded crime statistics based on data from all 44 forces in England and Wales (including the British Transport Police).

3. Police recorded knife and sharp instrument offences data are submitted via an additional special collection. Proportions of offences involving the use of a knife or sharp instrument presented in this table are calculated based on figures submitted in this special collection. Other offences exist that are not shown in this table that may include the use of a knife or sharp instrument.

4. Data from Surrey Police include unbroken bottle and glass offences, which are outside the scope of this special collection; however, it is not thought that offences of this kind constitute a large enough number to impact on the national figure.

5. Numbers differ from those previously published due to Sussex Police revising their figures to exclude unbroken bottles.

6. An audit of Thames Valley Police into the recording of knife and sharp instrument offences since the introduction of their new recording system in April 2014 has revealed that they were previously under-counting these offences. Data for the year ending March 2016 have been revised, but data for the year ending March 2015 have not; it is likely that the percentage changes presented are slightly higher than they would be once the year ending March 2015 data are revised.

7. Changes to offence codes in April 2012 mean the category of assault with injury and assault with intent to cause serious harm is not directly comparable with previous years. Appendix table A4 contains more details.

8. Sexual assault includes indecent assault on a male/female and sexual assault on a male/female (all ages).

9. Homicide offences are those currently recorded by the police as at 2 March 2017 and are subject to revision as cases are dealt with by the police and by the courts, or as further information becomes available. They include the offences of murder, manslaughter, infanticide and, as of year ending March 2013, corporate manslaughter. These figures are taken from the detailed record level Homicide Index (rather than the main police collection for which forces are only required to provide an overall count of homicides, used in Appendix table A4). There may therefore be differences in the total homicides figure used to calculate these proportions and the homicide figure presented in Appendix table A4.

Download this table

While in the past offences involving a knife were generally not thought to be prone to changes in recording practices, some forces have suggested that recording practice improvements may have been a factor contributing to the recent increases.

However, there has also been some indication, particularly in relation to more serious offences involving an injury to the victim, that the latest rise may represent a real change to the downward trend seen in recent years. Admissions data for NHS hospitals in England5, for example, showed a 13% increase in admissions for assault by a sharp object, from 3,590 in the year ending March 2015 to 4,054 in the year ending March 2016. More recent data from the London Ambulance Service (for the year ending July 2016, compared with the year ending July 2015) also shows a 3% rise in ambulance calls for service resulting from assaults involving a knife injury6.

Police recorded “possession of an article with a blade or point” offences also rose by 19% to 13,105 offences in the latest year. This rise is consistent with increases seen over the last 3 years, but levels remain below those seen a decade ago. This figure can often be influenced by increases in targeted police action in relation to knife crime, which is most likely to occur at times when rises in offences involving knives are seen. The category of “aggravated burglary”, which captures offences of burglary involving the use of a weapon, also increased over this period (up by 31% to 2,075).

Taking everything into account, it suggests the picture is a complex one, with rises in offences involving knives reflecting both improvements in recording practices but also a genuine rise in knife crime in some areas.

Offences involving firearms

Similar to the breakdown of offences involving knives or sharp instruments, statistics are available for police recorded crimes involving the use of firearms7. Firearms are taken to be involved in an offence if they are fired, used as a blunt instrument against a person, or used as a threat. Focus on Violent Crime and Sexual Offences: year ending March 2016 has more detailed information on trends and the circumstances of offences involving firearms, including figures based on a broader definition of the types of firearm involved8.

Offences involving firearms in the latest year increased by 13% (to 5,864) compared with the previous year. This was mainly driven by a 15% increase in offences involving handguns (rising from 2,162 to 2,497), and partly by a 28% increase in offences involving shotguns (from 416 to 532) and a 10% increase in offences involving imitation weapons (such as BB guns9; from 1,379 to 1,523)10. The recent increase in offences involving handguns is driven by increases in a small number of mainly urban forces. The increase in overall firearm offences comes after a general downward trend, with the overall level being 47% below its peak (in the year ending March 2006; Figure 6).

Recent increases have also been reflected in admissions data for NHS hospitals in England11, which showed increases in all three categories of assault by firearm discharge12, from 86 admissions in the year ending March 2015 to 109 admissions in the year ending March 2016. Data from the London Ambulance Service showed a small rise in ambulance calls for service resulting from assaults involving a gun injury, from 123 to 128 (for the year ending July 2016, compared with the year ending July 2015; this overlaps with the first 7 months of the crime figures reported in this bulletin)13. Given the small numbers involved and the nature of these data, they will only reflect trends in a small sub-set of crimes covering the most serious offences.

Figure 6: Trends in police recorded crime in England and Wales involving the use of firearms, year ending March 2003 to year ending December 2016

Source: Police recorded crime, Home Office

Notes:

Police recorded crime data are not designated as National Statistics.

Firearms include: shotguns; handguns; rifles; imitation weapons such as BB guns or soft air weapons; other weapons such as CS gas or pepper spray; and stun guns; and unidentified weapons. They exclude conventional air weapons, such as air rifles.

Notes for: Police recorded offences involving weapons rise

A sharp instrument is any object that pierces the skin (or in the case of a threat, is capable of piercing the skin), for example a broken bottle.

An audit into the recording of knife and sharp instrument offences by Thames Valley Police has revealed that they had been under-counting these offences since the introduction of their new recording system in April 2014. Data for year ending March 2016 were revised, but data for the previous year (ending March 2015) were not.

This source excludes homicides committed using a knife or sharp instrument.

Firearms include shotguns; handguns; rifles; imitation weapons such as BB guns or soft air weapons; other weapons such as CS gas or pepper spray and stun guns; and unidentified weapons. These figures exclude conventional air weapons, such as air rifles.

The broader definition of firearms includes conventional air weapons, such as air rifles.

A type of air gun that fires spherical projectiles.

It is not always possible to identify the type of firearm used. The police will record which type of weapon has been used in an offence given the evidence available (such as descriptions given by victims or witnesses). Some imitation weapons are so realistic that they are indistinguishable from a real firearm. In the absence of sufficient information to classify the firearm, the police will record the weapon as an “unidentified firearm.”

10. Do the rises in theft offences recorded by the police reflect a genuine rise in crime?

The theft offences category of police recorded crime covers a range of acquisitive crimes including burglary, vehicle offences (principally theft of and theft from a motor vehicle), theft from the person, as well as theft of unattended items. Robbery, which is theft (or attempted theft) involving the use or threat of force, is covered in a separate category. However, since it is a similar type of offence and the motivation to commit a robbery will normally be the acquisition of money or property, the latest robbery trends are also covered in this section.

Recent trends in recorded theft offences

The latest police recorded crime figures show that there were 1,820,079 theft offences recorded in the year ending December 2016, a 4% increase compared with the previous year. Increases were seen across all theft categories, but were most marked in vehicle offences (up 8%, from 361,296 to 389,371) and shoplifting (up 8%, from 332,891 to 358,235). Both of these offence categories have seen rising numbers of crimes recorded over the last 2 to 3 years, though these latest increases were larger than any other year-on-year increases seen during this period.

Similarly, the latest rise in theft from the person offences (which were up by 6%, from 81,434 to 86,548) was also a continuation of an upward trend seen over the last 2 years. However, in the case of other categories of theft, increases in the number of recorded crimes have emerged more recently. Domestic burglary increased by 4% (up to 200,659 offences) and robbery rose by 10% compared with the previous year.

These latest increases should be seen in the context of a longer-term declining trend in theft offences (Figure 7). The current level remains 34% lower than in the year ending March 2006 (Table 2). A smaller (2%) rise in theft offences was reported in the last quarterly bulletin and this was the first time an increase had been recorded since the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) in April 2002. However, the latest rises in theft offences are relatively small, and expressed as a number of offences per head of population, crime rates show little change compared with the previous year (Table A7).

Figure 7: Trends in selected police recorded theft offences and robbery in England and Wales, year ending March 2003 to year ending December 2016

Source: Police recorded crime, Home Office

Notes:

Police recorded crime data are not designated as National Statistics.

Download this chart

Factors that may have contributed to rising theft

There are a range of factors that might lie behind the rise in some categories of theft. As observed in other categories of recorded crime, trends may have been influenced by improvements in recording practice by the police. Other factors could be increased reporting by victims and a genuine rise in levels of crime.

Concerning the potential impact of improved crime recording practices, in the last 2 to 3 years, there has been a focus on improving the quality of crime recording by the police. Inspections published by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) in 2014 found "unacceptably low" standards of crime recording, such that the police were not recording many crimes that they should have been. Levels of under-recording were found to have been particularly pronounced in violent crime and sexual offences, where the police were judged to have under-recorded by 33% and 24% respectively. While the HMIC inspections found some evidence of under-recording in crime categories involving theft, these were found to be lower, with the police having failed to record 11% of burglaries and14% of robberies that should have been recorded. Thus, while it is likely that improved recording has been a factor in the recent rise in theft offences, there is less scope for increases in these offences to have resulted solely from recording improvements.

With regard to reporting rates, there is no evidence of there having been a statistically significant increase in reporting rates over the last year. The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) for the year ending March 2016 showed that theft of vehicles tends to have high levels of reporting to the police (95%). Rates of reporting for burglary with entry (70%), theft from person (34%) and robbery (60%) are lower so the scope for increased reporting is greater for these type of offences (Table D8).

In contrast to the police recorded crime figures, the latest data from the CSEW continue to show falls in theft, with the estimated number of theft offences having declined by 10% compared with the previous year (Table 1a). However, this does not necessarily mean that we can conclude that increases in police recorded crime do not reflect a genuine rise in crime. While the CSEW provides a robust measure of long-term trends, it is less reliable for providing an indication of emerging trends. This is in part due to the time lag arising from the 12-month recall period1 and also due to the natural variability arising from any sample survey.

On balance, the evidence suggests that rises in domestic burglary, vehicle offences, theft from the person and robbery are likely to reflect a combination of factors. While recording improvements may have been a contributory factor, these figures are also likely to be indicative of a genuine rise in these types of crime. However, despite this recent increase, these rates of crime remain substantially lower than a decade ago.

Notes for: Do the rises in theft offences recorded by the police reflect a genuine rise in crime?

The lag effect on the CSEW relates to the reference period used in the survey interview. Respondents are asked about crimes they experienced in the 12 months prior to the interview. Since the earliest interviews in the current survey year took place in January 2016, the latest estimates are based on crimes occurring between January 2015 and November 2016. Further information on the survey reference period is available in Chapter 2 of the User Guide to Crime Statistics for England and Wales.

11. What’s happening to trends in fraud?

The extent of fraud is difficult to measure because it is a deceptive crime; victimisation is often indiscriminate, covering organisations as well as individuals. Some victims of fraud may be unaware they have been a victim of crime, or that any fraudulent activity has occurred for some time after the event. Others might be unwilling to see themselves as victims or reluctant to report the offence to the authorities, feeling embarrassed that they have fallen victim. The level of fraud reported via administrative sources is thought to significantly understate the true level of such crime.

While the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimates will include crimes that have not been reported to the authorities, being a household survey, the CSEW only seeks to capture fraud where an individual has been a victim. Compared with victims of other crime types, it is also more likely that some victims of fraud, especially very elderly and vulnerable victims who may have suffered significant financial losses, may not have the confidence to allow an interviewer into their home to conduct an interview.

Main findings

Based on Experimental Statistics from new CSEW fraud and computer misuse questions, adults aged 16 and over experienced an estimated 5.4 million fraud and computer misuse incidents in the 12 months prior to interview; 3.5 million of these were fraud incidents and 1.9 million were computer misuse incidents.

In the latest year, there was a 4% increase in the number of fraud offences recorded by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) in England and Wales (up to 641,535 offences) compared with the previous year.

Other industry data1 from Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA UK) showed 1.9 million cases of frauds on UK-issued cards, cheque fraud and remote banking fraud (internet, telephone and mobile banking), an increase of 21% from the previous year. The vast majority of such cases were not referred to the police due to there being insufficient intelligence value to aid in investigating and detecting fraud.

Crime Survey for England and Wales

Questions on bank and credit card fraud have been included since 2005 but did not collect enough detail to be added to the main crime estimates, however, they continue to be included in the survey while new questions on all fraud are bedded in. Latest estimates are dicussed in Figure 8.

New questions on fraud and computer misuse were introduced to half of the survey sample from October 2015 and are published as Experimental Statistics2. Previously, fraud and computer misuse estimates had been reported on separately but since year ending September 2016 are now incorporated within headline CSEW estimates, as they are based on a full year’s data. Year-on-year trends will not be available until January 2018.

Based on new questions, adults aged 16 and over experienced an estimated 3.5 million incidents of fraud, as shown in Table 4, with just over half of these (55%; 1.9 million incidents) being cyber-related3 (Table E2).

The most common types of fraud experienced were “bank and credit account” fraud (2.5 million incidents; 71% of total fraud), followed by “non-investment” fraud – such as fraud related to online shopping or fraudulent computer service calls (0.8 million incidents; 24% of total fraud).

In addition, adults experienced an estimated 1.9 million computer misuse incidents; around two-thirds (66%; 1.3 million incidents) of these were computer virus-related and around one-third (34%; 0.6 million incidents) were related to unauthorised access to personal information (including hacking).

Table 4: Crime Survey for England and Wales fraud and computer misuse – numbers of incidents for year ending December 2016 (Experimental Statistics)1,2

England and Wales

Adults aged 16 and over

Offence group

Number of incidents (thousands)

Fraud

3,480

Bank and credit account fraud

2,454

Non-investment fraud

827

Advance fee fraud

102

Other fraud

97

Computer misuse

1,917

Computer virus

1,275

Unauthorised access to personal information (including hacking)

642

Unweighted base - number of adults

17,500

Source: Crime Survey for England and Wales, Office for National Statistics

Notes:

1. Experimental Statistics are those which are in the testing phase and not yet fully developed. They are published in order to involve users and stakeholders in their development, and as a means to build in quality at an early stage.

2. New victimisation questions on fraud and computer misuse were incorporated into the CSEW from October 2015. Initial estimates are based on the approximately 17,500 cases gathered betweeen January 2016 and December 2016. The questions are currently asked of half the survey sample to test for detrimental effects on the survey as a whole and help to ensure that the historical time series is protected.

Download this table

Further findings from the new CSEW fraud and computer misuse questions are presented in Tables E1 to E2.

Just over two-thirds (70%) of fraud incidents involved initial loss of money or goods to the victim (independent of any reimbursement received4). This equates to an estimated 2.4 million offences, compared with 1.1 million incidents of fraud involving no loss (Experimental table E1).

Incidents of bank and credit account fraud were more likely to result in initial loss to the victim (76%, equivalent to 1.9 million) than other types of fraud. Incidents of this type are largely where account holders’ card details have been compromised and then used fraudulently. In the majority of these incidents, the victim received a full reimbursement, typically from their financial services provider (85%).

The extent of cyber-enabled fraud5 varied by type of offence, with victims reporting three-quarters (76%) of non-investment frauds as having involved the use of the internet in some way, compared with less than half (47%) of all bank and credit account frauds (Experimental table E2).

In addition to these new data covering a wide spectrum of fraud, for the last decade, the survey has included a supplementary module of questions on plastic card (bank and credit card) fraud, which continue to be produced.

The results from this supplementary module show a statistically significant increase in the percentage of plastic card owners who were victims of card fraud in the previous year, increasing from 4.5% in the year to December 2015 to 5.7% in the year to December 2016. This follows a relatively stable trend in levels of plastic card fraud measured by this module over the last few years, although it is still lower than the 2009 and 2010 peak. The current estimate is now at a similar level as the estimate for the year ending March 2011, as shown inFigure 8. Data from these questions provide an indication of whether an individual has been a victim of plastic card fraud, but do not provide any information on the number of times this occurred or the scale of any loss that may have been experienced. The significant rise recorded by this supplementary module is consistent with rises in data referred by Cifas and by other industry data from Financial Fraud Action UK (CAMIS), which are discussed further in the next section.

Figure 8: Proportion of Crime Survey for England and Wales plastic card users who had been a victim of plastic card fraud in the last year, year ending March 2006 to year ending December 2016

Source: Crime Survey for England and Wales, Office for National Statistics

Notes:

The data in this table refer to crimes experienced in the 12 months before interview, based on interviews carried out in that year.

Download this chart

At this early stage, the existing estimates from the supplementary module on plastic card fraud and from the new Experimental Statistics on bank and credit account fraud (4.4% of all adults, equivalent to 4.7% of plastic card owners) appear to be of a similar magnitude. Given that these types of offence comprise just over two-thirds (71%) of the new fraud estimate, trends in plastic card fraud from the supplementary module give an indication of recent trends in fraud in the absence of a back series from the new questions.

Recorded fraud offences

The police recorded crime series incorporates offences reported to Action Fraud (the national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre) as well as those reported to the NFIB by two industry bodies: Cifas and FFA UK. The volume of such incidents referred to NFIB is substantially lower than the estimates from the new CSEW fraud and computer misuse questions. However, while the survey provides a better indication of the threat of such crimes, it will tend to be dominated by lower-harm cases than the administrative data, which will tend to be focused on cases at the more serious end of the spectrum.

In the latest year, there was a 4% increase in the number of fraud offences recorded in England and Wales (up to 641,5396 offences) compared with the previous year, as shown in Tables 18a and 18b; this was largely owing to offences referred by Action Fraud, which increased by 12% (up to 250,496) and offences referred by Cifas, which increased by 3% (up to 303,145). In contrast, fraud offences recorded by FFA UK decreased by 10% (down to 87,894) compared with the previous year.

Victims of fraud may report incidents to Action Fraud via an online reporting tool or via a telephone helpline. In July 2015, the company that was contracted to provide the call centre service went into administration. This led to an immediate downscaling of the call centre operation. A new contractor, who was due to take over the Action Fraud call centre in April 2016, was asked to take over operations early in August 2015. Following the previous call centre service contractor going into administration in July 2015, Action Fraud recorded lower than normal monthly volumes of fraud offences between the period of July 2015 to April 2016. Subsequent to this period, figures started to return to levels seen prior to the contractual issues.

As volumes have recovered in recent months and because some of the lower-volume months now form part of the comparator year (year to December 2015), the size of the increase in Action Fraud recorded offences has risen to 12% compared with the decrease of 1% seen in last quarter’s bulletin. Latest trends will have been influenced by the changes in the operation of the Action Fraud call centre and thus figures should be interpreted with caution. We expect the effect on the Action Fraud data will continue over the next few quarters.

One of the largest increases in the separate categories of fraud referred to the NFIB in the latest year was seen in “banking and credit industry” fraud (up 4% to 376,244 offences). This was caused by the volume increase in offences reported to the NFIB by Cifas (up 7% to 256,668 offences) and Action Fraud (up 27% to 31,682 offences). This is largely driven by an increase in application fraud reported by Cifas (up 22% to 74,762) and Action Fraud (up 119% to 6,608). In contrast, fraud offences reported to the NFIB via FFA UK saw a noticeable decrease of 10% (down to 87,894 offences) compared with the previous year. This differs from the rise of 11% seen in the previous quarter and is thought to reflect the level of reporting to FFA UK returning to normal volumes, following large increases in more recent quarters.

Other notable increases were also seen for “non-investment fraud”, which increased by 8% (equivalent to 7,376 offences), “advance fee payment” fraud, which increased by 9% (equivalent to 3,273 offences), and “computer misuse crime”, which increased by 17% (equivalent to 2,316 offences) compared with the previous year. These categories of fraud are only referred to the NFIB by Action Fraud.

Several major categories of fraud continued to fall in the latest year; for example, “telecom industry fraud (misuse of contracts7)” fell by 15% (equivalent to 7,185 offences), continuing the downward trend seen in the previous quarter, with the decrease largely accounted for by a fall in these types of offences reported by Cifas. “Insurance fraud” also saw a decrease in the year ending December 2016, falling by 23% (equivalent to 2,604 offences), following a period of increase. This reduction is largely due to a decrease in the number of such offences reported by Cifas, although it is too early to say at this stage if this is a genuine reduction or simply increased recording activity of Cifas members. “Financial investments” fraud also fell in the latest year, down 16% (equivalent to 828 offences).

A full breakdown of the types of fraud offences referred to the NFIB by Action Fraud, Cifas and FFA UK in the latest year is presented in Table A5.

Concerning offences recorded by Action Fraud, unlike other crime types (for which recorded crime data are submitted by individual police forces), subnational breakdowns have only been available from the year ending March 2016. This reflects both Action Fraud’s role as the national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime and the fact that such offences often cross geographical boundaries and can be difficult to pin down to geographic territories.

Following work conducted by the Home Office and Action Fraud, a police force area breakdown of Action Fraud data based on where the individual victim resides, or in the cases of businesses, where the business is located, has now been produced. These data are published as Experimental Statistics and are presented in Table E3. In contrast with most other crimes, the latest data show there was generally less variation in rates of fraud by police force area, although rates for forces in southern England were slightly higher than those among forces in Wales or northern England.

Further details on the different categories of fraud and how data on them are collected are available in Section 5.4 of the User Guide.

Card and bank account fraud not reported to the police

Data referred to the NFIB by Cifas and FFA UK are known to exclude a significant volume of card and bank account fraud. Cifas do not collect information on some types of plastic card fraud, including “remote purchase” frauds (those frauds where the cardholder and card are not present at the point of sale, such as use of the card online, over the phone or by mail order), fraud resulting from cards being lost or stolen, or ATM fraud. While FFA UK does collect this information, it only refers crimes to the NFIB in cases where there is intelligence value for the police to aid in investigating and detecting fraud.

FFA UK does, however, collect information from its members on a broader range of bank account and plastic card frauds than those referred to the NFIB, using a system referred to as CAMIS, and data from this source are shown in Table F208. While these figures are at UK level only, they offer a broader picture of the scale of bank account and plastic card fraud. It is important to note that these data also include those cases referred by FFA UK to the NFIB (presented in Table F18a) and many of them will also be included in the CSEW; for example, individual account holders whose bank has also referred the incident to the NFIB.

In the latest year, FFA UK reported 1.9 million cases of frauds on UK-issued cards, cheque fraud and remote banking fraud (internet, telephone and mobile banking)9, an increase of 21% from the previous year. This compares with the 10% decrease in the level of these frauds that were reported by FFA UK to the NFIB. The cases reported to the NFIB are those with intelligence value to the police and are less likely to include incidences of “remote purchase” fraud, which was one of the main drivers in the overall increase in FFA UK data from CAMIS.

The FFA UK Year end 2016 fraud update continued to find that “impersonation and deception scams, as well as online attacks to compromise data, continued to be the primary factor behind fraud losses.” The report also commented on the “intelligence reported to FFA UK of an increase in distraction thefts and card entrapment at ATMs, with fraudsters obtaining both the card and the PIN, enabling them to commit fraud at cash machines and in stores.” It was also suggested that criminals have increased their focus on sophisticated phishing emails, which are “purporting to be from major online retailers and internet companies” and “attempt to trick recipients into giving away personal or financial details, or into downloading malware.”

In general, the FFA UK figures have been consistent with those shown by the CSEW trend in plastic card fraud, with levels peaking around 2008 to 2010, followed by falls in subsequent years that were likely to be related to the introduction of chip card technology.

While the latest CSEW rise in the prevalence of plastic card fraud (from 4.5% to 5.7%) is statistically significant and mirrors the latest rise in plastic card fraud observed in FFA UK data from CAMIS, the prevalence of plastic card fraud measured by the survey is only slightly higher than that seen 5 years ago (5.3%) in year ending March 2011. Further information on trends in payment industry fraud based on industry data collated by FFA UK is available in Fraud the Facts 2016.

Notes for: What’s happening to trends in fraud?

This refers to information that FFA UK collects from its members on a broader range of bank account and plastic card frauds than those referred to the NFIB, using a system referred to as CAMIS. Data from this source are shown in Table F20.

These data build upon the findings from the field trial of the newly developed survey questions – which can be found in the methodological note CSEW Fraud and Cyber-crime development: Field trial – October 2015. These findings should not be directly compared with the published experimental statistics as methodological refinements were made following the trial.

Based on whether the internet or any type of online activity was related to any aspect of the offence.

This refers to both money taken or stolen by the fraudster as well as any additional costs or charges as a consequence of the fraud, for example, bank charges, repair costs and replacement costs.

Cybercrimes defined by the CSEW represent cases where the internet or any type of online activity was related to any aspect of the offence.

This figure is taken from Table A4 and includes 2 fraud offences recorded by the police. The total fraud offences recorded in England and Wales reported in Table A5 differs slightly, as it excludes these 2 offences.

Frauds within the telecoms sector that are reported to Cifas are subject to a lot of fluctuation, as they use a batch reporting system whereby they submit multiple reports in one go, which can refer to incidents occurring over a period of time.

FFA UK publish data on the volume of incidents of frauds on all payment types (including “remote purchase”), alongside data on financial fraud losses by the value of losses to customers. Latest figures for 2015 are available in their 2015: Financial Fraud Figures report, published in March 2016.

It is important to note that number of cases relates to the number of accounts defrauded, rather than the number of victims.

12. Quality and methodology

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW; previously known as the British Crime Survey) is a face-to-face survey in which people resident in households in England and Wales are asked about their experiences of crime in the 12 months prior to the interview. It covers both children aged 10 to 15 and adults aged 16 and over, but does not cover those living in communal establishments (such as care homes, student halls of residence and prisons), or crimes against commercial or public sector bodies.

The CSEW is able to capture a broad range of victim-based crimes1 experienced by those interviewed, not just those that have been reported to, and recorded by, the police. It covers a broad range of victim-based crimes experienced by the resident household population. However, there are some serious, but relatively low-volume offences, such as homicide and sexual offences, which are not included in its main estimates. Although, at the end of the main interview there is a self-completion element (via a tablet computer), where adults aged 16 to 59 are asked about their experience of domestic abuse and sexual violence, and these results are reported separately2.

A major strength of the CSEW has been its ability to compare crime types over time and for this reason, the CSEW has changed little over the last 30 years. However, the way in which criminals are operating is changing and they can now take advantage of new technologies, such as the internet, to both expand the scope of existing crime types and develop new ones. Nowhere has this been more apparent than in fraud and cybercrime. As questions aimed at identifying fraud and other cyber offences were not part of the original survey design, it had not previously been possible to include these new offences in the main estimate of CSEW crime.

To address this issue, new questions relating to fraud and computer misuse were introduced to half the survey sample from October 2015. Sufficient data have now been gathered to produce estimates of fraud and computer misuse and these are published within the “Crime in England and Wales” release again this quarter, after being published first in the year ending March 2016 quarterly bulletin and again in the year ending June 2016 quarterly bulletin. Details regarding the process in obtaining these new fraud and computer misuse estimates are available in the CSEW Fraud and Cyber-crime Development: Field Trial.

Since it began, the CSEW has been conducted by an independent (from government or the police) survey research organisation using trained interviewers to collect data from sampled respondents; the interviewers have no vested interest in the results of the survey. For the crime types and population groups it covers, the CSEW has a consistent methodology and is unaffected by changes in levels of public reporting to the police, recording practice or police activity. As such, the survey is widely seen to operate as an independent reality-check of the police figures. The independence of the survey has been further strengthened by the transfer of responsibility from the Home Office to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in April 2012.

The CSEW has a higher number of reported offences than police recorded crime, as the survey is able to capture all offences by those interviewed, not just those that have been reported to the police and then recorded. However, it does cover a narrower range of offences than the police recorded crime collection.

In 2009, the CSEW was extended to cover children aged 10 to 15 and this release also incorporates results from this element of the survey. However, the main analysis and commentary is restricted to adults and households due to the long time series for which comparable data are available.

The CSEW has a nationally representative sample of around 35,000 adults and 3,000 children (aged 10 to 15 years) per year. The response rates for the survey year ending March 2016 were 72% for adults and 66% for children. The survey is weighted to adjust for possible non-response bias and to ensure the sample reflects the profile of the general population.

Data sources – coverage and coherence: Police recorded crime and other sources

Police recorded crime figures are restricted to a subset of notifiable offences that have been reported to and recorded by the police. Therefore, while the police recorded crime series covers a wider population and a broader3 set of offences than the CSEW, it does not include crimes that do not come to the attention of the police or are not recorded by them.

Police recorded crime figures are supplied by the 43 territorial police forces of England and Wales, plus the British Transport Police, via the Home Office, to us. Data on fraud are sourced from Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud reporting centre; Cifas, the UK-wide fraud and financial crime prevention service; and Financial Fraud Action UK, who co-ordinate fraud prevention activity for the financial services industry.

Police recorded crime is the principal source of subnational crime statistics and for relatively serious, but low-volume, crimes that are not well measured by a sample survey. It covers victims (including, for example, residents of institutions and tourists as well as the resident population) and sectors (for example, commercial bodies) excluded from the CSEW sample. Recorded crime has a wider coverage of offences, for example, covering homicide, sexual offences and crimes without a specific, identifiable victim (referred to as “other crimes against society”) not included in the main CSEW crime count. Police recorded crime also provides good measures of well-reported crimes but does not cover any crimes that are not reported to, or discovered by, the police. It is also affected by changes in reporting and recording practices. Like any administrative data, police recorded crime will be affected by the rules governing the recording of data, by the systems in place and by operational decisions in respect of the allocation of resources.

As well as the main police recorded crime series, there are additional collections providing detail on offences involving the use of knives and firearms, which are too low in volume to be measured reliably by the CSEW.

Table 5: Strengths and limitations of the Crime Survey for England and Wales and police recorded crime

Crime Survey for England and Wales

Police recorded crime

Strengths

Strengths

Large nationally representative sample survey that provides a good measure of long-term crime trends for the offences and the population it covers (that is, those resident in households)

Has wider offence coverage and population coverage than the CSEW

Consistent methodology over time

Good measure of offences that are well-reported to the police

Covers crimes not reported to the police and is not affected by changes in police recording practice; therefore is a reliable measure of long-term trends

Primary source of local crime statistics and for lower-volume crimes (for example, homicide)

Coverage of survey extended in 2009 to include children aged 10 to 15 resident in households

Provides whole counts (rather than estimates that are subject to sampling variation)

Independent collection of crime figures

Time lag between occurrence of crime and reporting results tends to be short, providing an indication of emerging trends

Limitations

Limitations

Survey is subject to error associated with sampling and respondents recalling past events

Excludes offences that are not reported to, or not recorded by, the police and does not include less serious offences dealt with by magistrates’ courts (for example, motoring offences)

Excludes crimes against businesses and those not resident in households (for example, residents of institutions and visitors)

Trends can be influenced by changes in recording practices or police activity

Headline estimates exclude offences that are difficult to estimate robustly (such as sexual offences) or that have no victim who can be interviewed (for example, homicides and drug offences)

Not possible to make long-term comparisons due to fundamental changes in recording practice introduced in 1998 and the year ending March 20032

Previously, excluded fraud and cybercrime1

There are concerns about the quality of recording – crimes may not be recorded consistently across police forces and so the true level of recorded crime may be understated

Source: Office for National Statistics

Notes:

1. From 1 October 2015, the offence coverage of the CSEW was extended to include fraud experienced by the adult population. Estimates from these new questions were published for the first time in the “Crime in England and Wales, year ending March 2016” release.

Download this table

Accuracy of the statistics: Crime Survey for England and Wales

Since the CSEW is based on a sample of the population, estimates have a margin of quantifiable and non-quantifiable error associated with them. Non-quantifiable error includes:

when respondents have recalled crimes in the reference period that actually occurred outside that period (“telescoping”)

crimes that did occur in the reference period that were not mentioned at all (either because respondents failed to recall a fairly trivial incident or, conversely, because they did not want to disclose an incident, such as a domestic assault)

respondents saying they reported crimes to police when they did not (a “socially desirable” response)

some incidents reported during the interview being miscoded (‘interviewer or coder error’)

Unless stated otherwise, all changes in CSEW estimates described in the main text are statistically significant at the 5% level. Since the CSEW estimates are based on a sample survey, it is good practice to publish confidence intervals alongside them; these provide a measure of the reliability of the estimates and can be found in the User Guide tables. Further information on statistical significance can be found in Chapter 8 of the User Guide.

Accuracy of the statistics: Police recorded crime

Police recorded crime figures are a by-product of a live administrative system that is continually being updated as incidents are logged as crimes and subsequently investigated. The police return provisional figures to the Home Office on a monthly basis and each month they may supply revised totals for previously supplied months. The Home Office Crime and Policing Statistics team undertake a series of validation checks on receipt of the data and query outliers with forces who may then re-submit data. Details of these validation checks are given in Section 3.3 of the User Guide, and the differences in data published between the current and preceding publications can be found in Table QT1a.

Police recording practice is governed by the Home Office Counting Rules (HOCR) and the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS). The HOCR have existed in some form since the 1920s, with substantial changes in 1998. The NCRS was introduced in April 2002 following a critical report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) in 2000 (Povey, 2000), which showed that there was a problem with differing interpretation of the HOCR that resulted in inconsistent recording practices across forces.

Following an assessment of crime statistics by the UK Statistics Authority, published in January 2014, the statistics based on police recorded crime data have been found not to meet the required standard for designation as National Statistics.

In their report, the UK Statistics Authority set out 16 requirements that needed addressing for the statistics to meet National Statistics standards. We are working in collaboration with the Home Office Crime and Policing Statistics team and HMIC to address these requirements. A summary of actions taken in response to these requirements is available.

Full details on the history of the assessment and auditing of the quality and accuracy of police recorded crime statistics carried out in recent years is given in Section 3.3 of the User Guide. Since the UK Statistics Authority assessment decision, HMIC have undertaken an inspection of the integrity of police recorded crime (carried out between December 2013 and August 2014), which reviewed a total of 10,267 reports of crime recorded between November 2012 and October 2013 across all 43 police forces in England and Wales.

HMIC concluded that, across England and Wales as a whole, an estimated 1 in 5 offences (19%) that should have been recorded as crimes were not. The greatest levels of under-recording were seen for violence against the person offences (33%) and sexual offences (26%). However, there was considerable variation in the level of under-recording across the different offence types investigated. For other crime types: an estimated 14% of criminal damage and arson offences that should have been recorded as crimes were not; 14% of robbery offences; 11% of burglary offences; and 17% of other offences (excluding fraud)4.

In November 2015, HMIC wrote to all Chief Constables advising them that they would be commencing an unannounced programme of rolling inspections of crime recording on an ongoing basis. Reports on these inspections will be published on a rolling basis and can be found on the HMIC website.

The renewed focus on the quality of crime recording means that caution is needed when interpreting statistics on police recorded crime. While we know that it is likely that improvements in compliance with the NCRS have led to increases in the number of crimes recorded by the police, it is not possible to quantify the scale of this, or assess how this effect varied between different police forces. In volume terms, police recorded crime for England and Wales as a whole has increased by 9% in the latest year compared with the previous year and 43 police forces (including the British Transport Police) have recorded overall increases in levels of crime.

Apparent increases in police force area data may reflect a number of factors, including tightening of recording practice, increases in reporting by victims and also genuine increases in the levels of crime. It is thought that incidents of violence are more open to subjective judgements about recording and thus more prone to changes in police practice. A number of forces have also shown large increases in sexual offences, which are thought to reflect both a greater willingness among victims to report such crimes and improved compliance with recording standards for sexual offences.

Notes for: Quality and methodology

Victim-based crimes are those offences with a specific identifiable victim. These include the CSEW categories of “violence”, “robbery”, “theft offences”, “criminal damage” (and recently “fraud” and “computer misuse”) and the police recorded crime categories of “violence against the person”’, “sexual offences”, “robbery”, “theft offences” and “criminal damage and arson”.

The coverage of police recorded crime is defined by the Notifiable Offence List, which includes all indictable and triable-either-way-offences (offences which could be tried at a Crown Court) and a few additional closely related summary offences (which would be dealt with by magistrates’ courts). Appendix 1 of the User Guide has more information on the classifications used for notifiable crimes recorded by the police.

The range of crime recording accuracy for each of the crime types listed was positive or negative three. For more information, see Section 7.51 of the HMIC publication Crime-recording: Making the Victim Count.

13. Background notes

The Crime in England and Wales quarterly releases are produced in partnership with the Home Office who collate and quality assure the police recorded crime data presented in the bulletins. Home Office colleagues also quality assure the overall content of the bulletin.

However, statistics based on police recorded crime data have been assessed against the Code of Practice for Official Statistics and found not to meet the required standard for designation as National Statistics. The full assessment report can be found on the UK Statistics Authority website.